Honesty and Honor Theme Analysis

Old School centers on an unnamed narrator who begins his final year at an elite New England prep school in 1960. During this school year, the narrator tries to enhance his social standing among his classmates, often by lying about himself and his home life. The narrator even plagiarizes another student’s story in order to win a school literary competition, violating the school’s Honor Code. When these deceptions are revealed, the narrator is immediately expelled from the school and loses all of his friends. With this, the book emphasizes the value of honesty and honor and shows that without them, a person risks losing everything.

The narrator lies about who he is. Unlike most boys, the narrator attends the school on scholarship, and his father has a Jewish background—and he keeps both of these things a secret from his peers. Although the school prides itself on being egalitarian, the narrator worries that if he reveals these aspects of his identity, he won’t fit in as well with his classmates. He’s likely correct about this, since openly Jewish students at his school seem to stand out. The narrator describes how, for years, he “had hidden [his] family in calculated silences and vague hints and dodges.” As a result, he feels that although he is well-liked at the school, none of his friends know him very well. Omitting information about his life cuts the narrator off from close relationships.

Eventually, the narrator’s dishonesty about his personal life and his work costs him his place at school, as well as his friendships—a harsh punishment that illustrates the severe cost of dishonesty. When the school holds a literary contest, the narrator finds a story in an old literary magazine written by a student from a nearby girls’ school called Miss Cobb’s. He retypes the story and changes the main character’s name to his own, then submits it for the competition. Ironically, he plagiarizes the story because he really recognizes himself in the protagonist and feels that the story speaks honestly to his own experience—particularly as the protagonist is from a middle-class background and lies about her Jewish heritage. He even thinks, “Anyone who read[s] this story [will] know who [he is],” referring to the fact that he will finally be more open about his identity through the story’s details. On some level, the narrator understands the value of being honest about his life, even while he acts dishonestly. When the story is published, Bill, the narrator’s Jewish roommate, criticizes him for implying that he is Jewish and trying to write about the experience of a Jewish student. The irony is that the narrator actually does have a Jewish background, but he’s been successfully lying to his friends for so long that his attempt to be open about this is interpreted as deception. This costs him his friendship with Bill. Later, when the school discovers the narrator’s plagiarism, he is expelled for breaking the Honor Code. He never speaks to his friends again, and Columbia University withdraws his acceptance when the headmaster tells the university what the narrator did. Without honor and integrity, the narrator loses both his personal relationships and the bright future he was working toward.

The narrator later attempts to reconcile many of the missteps that he made in school, demonstrating his recognition that honesty and honor are necessary to a successful life. After being expelled and working odd jobs for a few years, the narrator decides to enlist in the military. He explains that joining the army is “an expectation [he has] for [him]self,” implying that serving in the military is important to him—likely because it is a way for him to regain the honor that he lost at school. The narrator also chooses to apologize to the girl whose story he stole, Susan Friedman. He sends her a note and meets her for lunch, where he comes clean about what he did. The narrator also thanks her for writing a story that is so “brave and honest.” In apologizing to and openly admiring Susan, the narrator recognizes the value of integrity and tries to emulate Susan’s courage and honesty. These actions enable the narrator’s success: he eventually becomes a successful writer and is even invited back to the school as one of its visiting authors, placing him in the company of Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, and Ayn Rand. By rectifying his mistakes and trying to be more honest, the narrator is then able to return to the school as an honorable person.

The value of honesty is reinforced in the final chapter of the novel, which switches focus to the dean of the school, Dean Makepeace. For years, many students believed that was close friends with Ernest Hemingway. But on the day the narrator is expelled, the dean explains to the headmaster that he has never actually met Hemingway but never corrected the students’ beliefs. He feels that he, too, has been deceptive and has broken the Honor Code, and so he decides to resign from the school. With this, Dean Makepeace both admits his dishonesty and is able to regain some honor, as he openly admits his mistake and essentially punishes himself. Then, when he asks to return to the school a year later, the headmaster welcomes him with open arms. In a way, this mirrors the narrator’s journey: deceiving others causes both men to lose everything, but being honest enables them to return to the school honorably.